You may be surprised to learn that until the last few centuries, most people saw laughter as indicative of a flaw or even a medical condition, a sign that the so called "humors" were out of balance.  The Greeks and the early Christian church were both quite suspicious of too much laughter.

Let's start by getting an overview of the major ways philosophers and other theorists have attempted to explain humor and laughter over the centuries.

After you have checked out this background, share some thoughts.  Which theory of humor makes the most sense to you?   Which one surprised you most? Can you use one of these theories to explain a joke you have heard?

After you respond, you will be able to see other people.  Respond to at least two people, preferably one who selected the same theory that you did, and one who picked something else.  This conversation will work best if you start it earlier in the week, so you are able to come back and see what else is there to respond to.

Here's an example of applying a theory.   When Dr. Welsh's daughter Kelsey was in high school, this was her favorite joke

We can explain this joke by turning to superiority theory.  In one of her classes, Kelsey had just learned about Rene Descartes,  a French philosopher who is well known for saying,"I think, therefore I am." Kelsey felt good and maybe even a little superior because she knew there was a philosopher who associated thinking with existence, and she could figure out that if he "thought not" he would not exist. 

Answer:

Individuals tend to laugh because of various reasons such as after hearing a funny joke or by being tickled. However not all of which are consequential to what individuals assume as humor. Furthe
rmore, attempting to provide a generalized theoretical explanation of laughter and humor it can be stated that laughter tend to rise from pleasant psychological shift while humor has its occurrence from satisfying or assuming cognitive shift (Attardo, 2017). Play theory at this juncture, can be intrinsically linked to humor occurrences as certain forms of playful actions tend to result in humorous ambiance. As play is identified as a significant result of surplus energy it tends to have the higher degree of occurrences during any light or comical moment of life.

However on the other hand, Attardo, (2017) has regarded superiority theory of humor as the narrowest form of theory which fails to cover every forms of humor or amusement. Furthermore, superiority theory does not exhibit any relevance to the word play nor does it has any relevance to all comic characters. Furthermore, people do not always seek humor in others misfortune or mistakes or due to any form of aloofness (Warren & McGraw, 2015). On the contrary, it has been stated that as humor possess integrated association with pleasure and pain it typically gets relieved by the delight of scratching (Attardo, 2017).

An example of baby playing ‘peek a boo’ can be related to play theory. While playing the game of ‘peek a boo’ a baby tends to laugh. However why does such a situation arise? During a game the face of the mother is disappeared for a while (tension), the mother shows her face (form of relief to the child). Such a sudden form of relief from tension through playful actions causes a baby to laugh.  

References

Attardo, S. (2017). The general theory of verbal humor. The Routledge handbook of language and humor, 126.

Warren, C., & McGraw, A. P. (2015). Opinion: What makes things humorous. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(23), 7105-7106.